Dioxygen activation by mononuclear copper enzymes: insights from a tripodal ligand mimicking their Cu(M) coordination sphere.

A mononuclear cuprous complex is proposed as a novel in silico model for the Cu(M) active site of noncoupled copper monooxygenases. To the best of our knowledge, it is one of the first biomimicking models that allows one to recover the intimate structural features of the enzymatic oxygenated adducts and to gain clear-cut insights relevant to dioxygen activation by these enzymes.